(Answered) Consciousness Checks

[Akalabeth]

I've been reading the combat rules and quite frankly I don't understand consciousness checks. Our group doesn't really play straight roleplaying, while we use the rules we are primarily a boardgame group that integrates PCs on the battlefield.

The problem is, as I understand it

-Every point of damage causes a consciousness check
-The basic conscious check is TN7, this is modified by the Base Injury Modifier which is -1 per 25% of damage of every part thereof.
-So your basic roll to stay conscious at the first point of damage is 8+


The problem is, this doesn't at all integrate with tactical battletech rules, and by that I mean Total Warfare.
When the PC's mech falls down, he takes a 1M/3 hit, he is going to be rolling an 8+ to stay conscious

Compare this to a standard battletech pilot (the NPCs in our game), who are going to need a 3+.

So an NPC will have a 97% chance to stay conscious, a PC will have only a 42% chance of staying conscious.


This becomes even more bizarre when you take into account damage suffered by ammo explosions. Ammo explosions are 0E/4D, so an ammo explosion will inflict 4 Fatigue on a character. Fatigue only matters when it exceeds WIL, so your average PC who takes damage from an ammo explosion (ie protected by CASE) with 4 or more WIL won't have any modifier to the consciousness roll and will only need a 7.

So a PC who suffers damage when his mech falls needs an 8+ to stay conscious
And a PC who suffers damage when his CASEd ammo explodes will need a 7+ to stay conscious

Compare this to standard battletech where:
A Mech falling causes 1 pilot hit
A Mech suffering an ammo explosion inflicts 2 pilot hits

See the disparity?
If we actually used the ATOW combat rules, our PCs are going to be going unconscious on a continual basis due to circumstances which any normal NPC chump pilot would have no problem with. After a number of such incidents, it MIGHT be better circumstances for the PCs than the NPCs but that would be well down the line.

As I understand it, the point of ATOW and all of the rulebooks is that the rules are supposed to integrate on a fundamental level but in this case the rules are so different that they'll give totally different battlefield experiences.

[HABeas2]

Hello,

There are two main reasons for this difference:

For starters, AToW offers players a variety of different modifiers and features that are simply not accounted for in a Total Warfare setting, where your "character" is nothing more than two numbers reflecting his Piloting and Gunnery Skills. For one, the amount of damage that constitutes a Consciousness modifier varies with BOD (A character with a BOD of 2 should rightly be sleeping once he's hit at all, while a character who has a BOD of 8 should not consider a KO-inducing hit at BOD 2 much more than a stunning blow--albeit still one that can drop him if he's unfortunate enough). For another, the character's WIL Link Attribute modifier also applies to the Consciousness Check, allowing strong-willed characters a better advantage. Total Warfare also doesn't account for Toughness, Glass Jaw, Pain Resistance, and so on. These features make for much more variety in gameplay options--and that's before we remember that--as briefly mentioned in the equipment section--LSSU (Medipacks) are something of a standard item in MechWarrior cockpits (they're not standard issue, but they do get mentioned a lot in fiction).

(Worth noting, BTW, is that the damage caused by various pilot-damaging actions in TW is not based on your character's size, but is very basic. Whether the character is BOD 2 or BOD 8 does not affect the damage taken in a single head hit, nor is such a hit automatically "one fifth" of said character's damage capacity, to match TW, as that was considered way too arbitrary.)

The second reason is a bit more critical: Based on the presumption that any character you cared enough to create is likely a character you'd like to keep a while longer, KO is encouraged sooner, to avoid keeping them awake and battle-ready longer than they should. In Total Warfare, it is rather common for a player to decide on an Alpha Strike, a suicidal charge, or some other form of potentially life-ending insanity as long as the pilot is nothing more than a pair of Skill numbers. A fully fleshed out character, however, is a lot deeper and should be more valuable to the controlling player.

Hopefully, that helps.

Thank you,

- Herbert Beas
  BattleTech
  Catalyst Game Labs

[Akalabeth]

Okay thanks for the explanation. Though even with a medipack, that apparently only grants the PC a +1 to his knockout check so it would still be a straight 7 to stay conscious which is not very good odds. I imagine in the end our group may house rule it, requiring some sort of minimum overall damage before rolling for knockout.

[HABeas2]

Hello,

Whatever works for your games, is, of course, best for you. It's about having fun, after all.

Thank you,

- Herbert Beas
  BattleTech
  Catalyst Game Labs